Meeting Today: Planning for the Needs of Graying McLean Baby Boomers

The taskforce created by Supervisor John Foust to look at aging in place in McLean  meets tonight after a busy month on the aging front in McLean.

About 100 people met at Temple Rodef Shalom in late June, where seniors urged officials to help them stay in McLean.

"People are choosing to stay here after they retire, in their own home or downsizing," said Sharon Levy, who spoke at the Rodef meeting.

 “They want to remain in the community they helped to build here in Northern Virginia.... We are getting older, and we need services and not the kids,” she said. “We need more services [and] programs so that our graying population remains active and engaged.”

At the meeting, John Elligers said many seniors like himself are looking for "intellectual classes" instead of activity-based classes. The classes could also be a place where seniors could meet other seniors, he said.

 “It seems to us for intellectually active seniors, the McLean-Falls Church area is a black hole," he said. "We are incredibly well-educated, a huge number of people with advanced degrees. It’s clear to us that the (McLean) community center should offer senior classes."

George Sachs, executive director of the McLean Community Center, attended the June meeting and pledged his support. Sachs said the community center would work to add programs attractive to seniors and would host a "volunteer help desk" to help seniors when they visit.

The McLean Community Center is meeting with the Aging in McLean Working Group to develop more programs at the community center that will interest and attract senior members, Dranesville Supervisor John Foust reported last week.

Members of VOICE, an interfaith group that sponsored the meeting at Rodef Shalom, also asked Foust for money to hire a new MCC staff member who would oversee senior programs.

Foust gave his support. “This issue of aging in place is happening not just in McLean but across the country,” he said. “We really need the community to come together and to help us."

The taskforce, McLean Creating A Liveable Community for Ages, originally emerged from an October 2011 meeting. Foust organized a forum where nearly 100 McLean residents spent a Saturday afternoon grappling with the question of how to reinvent McLean to accommodate Baby Boomers who want to grow old here when they can no longer drive.

Meeting: 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, July 24, Dolley Madison Library in Room 1. Contact: Jennifer Boysko (703) 471-5076.

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect name for the taskforce. The name is now correct.